The use of plastic bags having integral loop handles is steadily supplanting the use of paper bags in commercial establishments. The desirability of reusing these bags for home refuse has been recognized in the prior art. A number of plastic bag holders are available for home use. However, none of these bag holders appear to be widely accepted by consumers.
In order to be successful in home use a plastic bag holder must meet a number of criteria. First the bag holder must be low priced. In addition it must be compact when packaged so that it will not take up excessive shelf space and retailers will be willing to stock it. The bag holder must also be suitable for simple installation into a variety of different locations within a home. For example it must be suitable for installation on cabinet doors under a kitchen sink or in a narrow space against a wall as well as in open areas where space is not restricted. However, none of the commercially or domestically available bag holders offers a low cost design together with simplicity, versatility, and the ability to be compactly packaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,020 issued to Collins and U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,689 issued to Jones show light weight plastic bag holders that can be manufactured from sheets of plastic stock. In both of these references the bag holders have arms that extend perpendicularly to the mounting surface and are therefore unsuitable for use under kitchen cabinets or in narrow wall areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,867 issued to Malik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,388 issued to Provan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,170 issued to Orem, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,474 issued to Swenson teach bag holders for commercial use that are constructed of wire or solid sided members. Again the arms on all of these plastic bag holders make them unsuitable for a variety of installations. In addition, aside from being expensive, these bag holders have a rigid construction and occupy a large volume, as a result they are impractical for the home retail market.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,361 issued to McClellan shows a relatively simple bag holder system that consists of two independent arms that are mounted to a vertical surface. However, McClellan only describes and illustrates a perpendicular mounting of the arms relative to the vertical surface.
Bag holders having pivotable arms are well known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 461,291 shows a holder for canvas type bags that uses a complex detente system to adjust the angle at which the arms extend.
A number of other bag holder systems have foldable arms that allow the holders to be compactly shipped or stored. This type of bag holder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,441 issued to Briggs, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,307 issued to Malik, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,689 issued to Prader, and U.S. Pat. No. 447,686 issued to Holladay. All of these bag holders are arranged such that the arms may be folded from a perpendicularly extending position to a position wherein the arms are essentially parallel to the back support.